


Well?

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [46]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25273912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Pansy writes an article, one that's a little different from her usual investigative pieces.
Series: Surviving the War [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/813804
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Well?

Pansy and Hermione had been meeting semi-regularly for tea since they’d argued in the bowels of the ministry three years ago. They were rarely planned but if Pansy was in the ministry or Hermione had to visit the prophet they’d drop in on one another. So when Pansy got given the article for the prophet Hermione was the first person she went to.

“What happened to our heroes?” Hermione raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the title on Pansy’s pad. “Isn’t that a little off from your usual?”

“There aren’t any big scandals I’ve caught wind of yet.” Pansy shrugged and pulled the pad towards herself. “They think it’ll make the front page if nothing big happens. Plus Rita was eyeing it, I figured you’d prefer me.”

“I’d have been forced to catch her in a mason jar again, would have been entirely to much extra work.” Hermione waved a hand and Pansy grinned. “So it’s Harry of course, aren’t there enough books about him?”

“Oh plenty but the people want an article as well apparently.” She waved a hand. “Besides which half of those books are filled with lies, for example I know for a fact you never dated Draco.”

“Draco?” Hermione snorted. “No I did not, punched him once though.”

“You and half the school, he was a right git as a child.” Pansy nodded. “Yes, according to one of the books on you lot you had quite the thing for the bad boys, this was after your famous quidditch phase and before your courtship with Weasley.”

Hermione let out a laugh at that and shook her head. “I suppose if you look at my past in just the right light, and squint.”

“Which is what these books do of course.” Pansy’s grin was sharp. “So I wanted to be the one to write the article. Then I can make it not just on Harry, on you too, Ron, and a few others.”

“So, who else did you try to get?” Hermione raised an eyebrow.

“Well I wanted to get Kingsly and McGonagall but Kingsly refused to interview, as minister he didn’t really need to give a reason. McGonagall also refused to give an interview. She told me she was ‘just a professor’ and ‘children are her job not wars’ and I said I was going to quote her on that.”

Hermione snorted and ran a hand through her hair, tugging on the already frizzy curls. “So, you’re stuck with just us three again.”

“You three are going to have the most publicized names in the world, if you’re not already. ‘Biggest Heroes of the War’ and all that.” Pansy made the air quotes around it and Hermione laughed. “So what do you say? Want to go on record?”

“We weren’t heroes though, we were just scared children trying to do what was right.” Hermione nodded as she said it.

“That’s all any heroes are I imagine.” Pansy shrugged and picked up her quill. “Can I quote you on that though?”

After her own interview Hermione took Pansy to meet Ron and then Harry. Ron’s expression was suspicious but he gave the interview, Harry asked her as many questions as she asked him. He asked after her cat with a smirk at Hermione that made her blush and asked about Draco which made Hermione roll her eyes and Pansy smirk.

Ginny sought Pansy out on her own. They’d run into each other several times over the last few years with Pansy chasing stories and Ginny moving through the quidditch world. Ginny gave the kind of delightfully pointed interview Pansy loved. She added insights into Ron and Hermione’s years long courtship, into the way Hermione got ink on the tip of her nose when studying something even years after Hogwarts, and how Harry had bought her a broom when she got onto a quidditch team. She talked about other things too and Pansy decided this firey girl needed to be in her article. Ginny talked about the long dark days of hogwarts, Neville’s steady practiced wandwork, Luna’s stories, Hannah and Ernie’s lists, and Creevy brother’s smuggled in care packages.

After Ginny’s interview Pansy sought out Neville, Hannah, Ernie, and Dennis. They’d played a huge part in the hogwarts resistance and it was a part that was generally allocated to a footnote, if that.

When the article came out, on the sixth anniversary of the battle of hogwarts, it took up the whole of the front page and an entire page on the inside as well. It had quotes from each of them.

 **Ron:** I think my brothers did more, with the joke shop you know? Making people laugh, giving them hope, you can’t win without hope.

 **Hermione** : We weren’t heroes, just scared children trying to do what was right.

 **Harry:** We were just doing the best with what was given to us.

 **McGonagall:** I’m just a professor, the care of children is my job, not wars.

 **Ginny:** These day? Well Hermione is still trying to save the world of course, Harry’s teaching, he always loved teaching, and Ron’s helping George with the joke shop, getting a whole new generation outfitted with tricks and jokes.

 **Dennis:** That year was the scariest of my life, and we never would have made it through without Neville, Ginny, Luna, and Hannah. They made us feel like every little thing we did made a difference you know?

 **Neville:** Hogwarts was our home turf, and it didn’t like the death eaters anymore than we did.

 **Ernie:** The real heroes of this war were Lee and the twins, I don’t know what any of us would have done without Potterwatch. They kept everyone co-ordinated.

 **Hannah:** Some days all we could do was stay alive and that had to be enough.

The article covered what they were doing now but it also looked back at the children they’d been. She wrote about Harry and Draco’s feud with a tone that might have been mean if it hadn’t so clearly been fond. She wrote about the Creevy brother’s and Colin’s camera that had spent five years constantly flashing and one year hidden out of sight. True to her word Pansy checked and double checked every fact or anecdote that she put in to the article. When she was finished it came together into a story that was as heartwarming as it was likely to leave you misty-eyed.

Pansy cut the whole thing out of the paper and framed it, figured she’d probably consider it her best work for years to come. Hermione added it to her ever growing pile of publications about her and her friends. Ginny laughed and pinned it up in hers and Harry’s kitchen.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading y'all!


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